MRCT AND WONLIFE CELEBRATING THE LEGACY OF NELSON MANDELA

Make every day a Mandela Day #itisinyourhands.

Mandela Day, Community Garden, Community Clean-up

Mandela Day is an annual global celebration that takes place on 18 July to honour the life and legacy of Nelson Mandela. This day is a call to action for individuals, communities, and organisations to take time to reflect on Mandela's values and principles and to make a positive impact in their own communities.

Volunteers working in the MRCT community garden (Photo by Jodi Ellish).

On 22 July 2023 The Mosselbank River Conservation Team (MRCT) partner with Wonlife for their fourth annual Mandela Day event in Fisantekraal. The vision of the Nelson Mandela Foundation for 2023 is for the world to unite and act decisively against the consequences of climate change and food insecurity.

MRCT Community Garden

And in line with this vision, the MRCT worked on their food garden for the event. The annual weeds were removed, compost worked into the soil and vegetables and herbs was planted including spinach, beets, carrots, Lemon Balm, chamomile among others. The garden is not fenced in and once the food is ready, the community may harvest it. We have had vandalism in the past, but with time we believe the community understand the garden is there to benefit them. The MRCT started this garden in 2021 as an Adopt-a-Space project to convert an illegal dumping hotspot into a garden. Residents have harvested watermelons, spinach, Zucchini and Broccoli in the past.

Photos by Jodi Ellish.

Community Clean-up

Not all volunteers have green fingers and have opted to join the community clean-up. Although large illegal dumping sites have been addressed at the Mosselbank River open spaces, smaller dumping incidents do still occur (such as Spaza shops that dump their access waste or people who renovate and dump building rubble and furniture). The volunteers collected 153 KG of litter (35 bags) in 67 minutes.

Volunteers part of the community clean-up (Photo by Danielle Cronje).

Thank you to all the volunteers and to Wonlife for partnering with us. As well as to Lizzy Soup Kitchen for providing a meal to the volunteers. If you would like to volunteer with the MRCT or support the team in anyway, please email mosselbankconservationteam@gmail.com.